The Irish Times: Irish women forced to travel for abortions to take cases to UN

By Kitty Holland

11.09.13 - Three women who were forced to travel to Britain to terminate their pregnancies following diagnoses that their babies would not survive outside the womb will take their cases to the United Nations next week.

The women, members of the Terminations for Medical Reasons group, will hold a press conference in Dublin on Wednesday, with the New York-based Centre for Reproductive Rights (CRR), outlining their cases. They will allege that the fact they were forced to leave Ireland to terminate their pregnancies amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Siobhain Murphy, Ruth Bowie and Amanda Mellet will call on the UN to put pressure on Ireland to legalise abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormaility.

They are being supported in bringing the cases by Doctors for Choice here in Ireland and by the CRR. The Centre has been operating for two decades. According to its website it uses the law “to advance reproductive freedom as a fundamental human right that all governments are legally obligated to protect, respect, and fulfil.”